


Moonlight Kissed

by Krixel



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Just Soft Husbands, M/M, Romantic Fluff, no beta we die like men, sad anniversary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25717198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krixel/pseuds/Krixel
Summary: Finding himself at the ritual pool in the middle of the night, Ethari struggles to deal with the anniversary of the worst day of his life. Luckily, he doesn't have to face it alone.
Relationships: Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70





	Moonlight Kissed

Ethari awoke with a weight on his chest, hours away from dawn. The sorrow of the day crawled towards him from the shadows and swiped at his back. He slipped out of bed and padded from the room, when it became obvious no amount of effort would lull him to sleep. He eased the front door shut and walked down the steps of the tree, following his grief like a siren’s call. Silver light reflected off the ritual pool. Only clustered lily pads disturbed its surface. 

Ethari dipped a finger into the pool as he sat on the stone rim of the basin. Ripples shimmered over his reflection, cascading outward until the moon joined him in despair on the water’s surface. There had been no need for Ethari’s enchanted flowers, since negotiations for peace had started between Xadia and the human kingdoms. With no reason to watch the pool, he’d taken to avoiding it. Once, it’d been a place of solace, an offered assurance that his heart continued to beat when it ventured beyond the wooded grove. In a single, devastating moment that comfort vanished beneath the water like an anchor tethered to his heart.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and Ethari startled, nearly toppling into the pool. The grip tightened and eased him against strong legs. Ethari melted into the support as a second hand slipped over his chest and rested an open palm over his heart. He tilted his head and grinned at his frowning husband. 

“What are you doing awake, Moonlight? You just barely went to bed,” Runaan said.

“Sorry.” Ethari lowered his gaze back to the pool. “I didn’t mean to wake you. You should be resting.”

“I’m fine,” Runaan said. He pressed his fingers into the knots along Ethari’s shoulders, trying to tease out the tension in the overworked muscles. “You’ve been working too much and sleeping too little. I’m worried about you.”

Ethari’s heart twisted and he reached up to rest his hand over his husband’s, holding tight. “I didn’t mean to distress you, my heart. I promise, I’m all right.”

Runaan sighed. He pulled away from Ethari, slowly so that his husband wouldn’t topple over again, and sat down on the ground beside Ethari’s feet. When he rested his head on Ethari’s knee, fingers absently stroked through the soft white strands of his hair. 

“I’ve upset you.”

“No,” Runaan said, but his voice was weary and edged with sharpness. “Something is bothering you. Talk to me. I won’t break.”

Ethari brushed his fingers through Runaan’s hair, untangling sleep messed strands any time his fingers caught. Over the last six months, Runaan had clawed his way back to some semblance of normalcy. He still suffered nightmares, but not as often, and Ethari tried to never let him wake alone - something of a spectacular fail that night. During the day, he and Runaan had reached a stage where they tolerated separation for a few hours. Once his body had recovered enough to resume training, ignoring the occasional flare in his left arm, Runaan returned to his own duties. No one had dissented his reclaimed authority of the assassins. Ethari tugged more smiles out of him with less effort these days, and he was loath to do anything that might set his husband back for even a moment. “I do not think you’re weak, my heart. Never believe I’d think that of you.”

Runaan tilted his head the smallest amount and kissed Ethari’s knee. “Then talk to me, Ethari. Tell me what is wrong so I can fix it.”

“You being here, alive, with me, fixes it. I need nothing more than that.” Ethari pressed a kiss to Runaan’s temple and smiled when his teal eyes fluttered closed. “Come on, let’s go back inside. I didn’t mean to drag you out here with me.”

Ethari waited for Runaan to lift his head and swallowed a grin as Runaan blinked sleepily and rubbed at his eyes. He offered a hand to his sleep deprived assassin and tugged Runaan to his feet with enough strength to make him stumble. Runaan caught himself against Ethari’s shoulders, and Ethari dipped his head and stole a kiss. Runaan froze in stilted surprise, and then he closed his eyes and leaned into him. Ethari shivered with delight as Runaan’s hand slid up his shoulder to cup his neck, his rough thumb stroking the underside of Ethari’s jaw. When Runaan eased his head back, Ethari tried to step away, but his husband held him tight. “You’re distracting me.”

Ethari rested his forehead against Runaan’s and grinned. “Trying my best.”

Runaan shook his head, but his lips twitched in a fond smile. “You frustrate and enamor me.”

Ethari’s smile widened, and he placed another kiss between Runaan’s furrowed brows. “Then I am doing my job.”

“Perhaps,” Runaan said, closing his eyes on another sigh.

When his eyes opened and he looked up at Ethari through his lashes, it was Ethari who blew out a frustrated breath. Enraptured as he was by his husband’s brilliant teal gaze, he knew that stubborn glint. “You will not let this go, will you?”

“No, Moonlight, I won’t. You’ve been distant all week, and I tried to give you space because it seemed like what you wanted, but now you sneak out in the middle of the night to visit the ritual pool when you’ve done your best to avoid it since I returned.” Runaan wrapped his arms around Ethari’s waist, pulling him closer. “Something heavy weighs on your heart. Share it with me. Let me hold some of that burden.”

The words tumbled through Ethari’s head, piercing his heart. The months following the loss of Runaan’s lotus were the loneliest of Ethari’s life. Many in the village had reached out to him, offered support in the only way they knew how - with praise and stories of Runaan’s legend, as if they cherished Runaan’s honor above his life, as if Ethari should be proud that Runaan sacrificed himself to complete the mission. They said for a Moonshadow, especially Runaan, there could be no better death than in service to Xadia. All Ethari knew was that his heart wasn’t coming home. He’d lost his best friends, his husband, and his daughter in a handful of months, and pride did not keep him company during his moonless nights.

Ethari had thrown himself into his work, faking smiles until it felt natural, and allowed his pain only during the darkest hours of the night. He’d fallen into a routine over those months, isolated by his grief. He grew used to being alone. The loss knitted deep into his heart, and he kept it like a secret buried beneath layers of congeniality, but Runaan saw through him. Of course, he did. Ethari smiled, and his honey eyes had never looked so sad. “It’s an anniversary of sorts.”

Runaan hummed low in his throat. Ethari smothered a grimace as his husband’s eyes narrowed, no doubt cycling through all the occasions he may have forgotten. Before Runaan could disappear too far down that hole of self-loathing, Ethari grazed a finger over Runaan’s jaw, brushed his thumb against his bottom lip. “It is not an anniversary for you to remember.”

“If it is important to you, then I should remember it,” Runaan said, but he nipped at Ethari’s thumb where it continued to caress him.

“I am certain you do.” Ethari took pity on his husband and removed his thumb, replacing it with his lips. The kiss was slow, gentle, and Ethari wanted to get lost in it. He broke it with a groan, but rested his forehead against Runaan’s and gazed into his eyes. “Just differently than I.”

“Tell me.”

Beside them, the ritual pool waited. Ethari took a slow breath and untangled himself from his husband’s arms. Runaan frowned at him, but let him go. Ethari took his hand and then faced the pool. He knelt beside the stone rim and after a brief hesitation, Runaan joined him. Ethari’s gaze remained rooted to the water, its surface calm and still beneath the reflection of the waning crescent. There were no flowers on the pool tonight, but two waited in Ethari’s memories - and as he watched, one began to sink. Grief, suppressed and ignored for months, roiled through his chest and his breath caught. Beside him, Runaan squeezed his hand. Ethari responded in kind until his husband gave an involuntary gasp, and the craftsman realized it was the left hand he was crushing into oblivion. He tried to jerk his hand away, but Runaan held fast. His teal eyes were steady, a port in the storm when he met Ethari’s. “Tell me.”

Ethari laughed, a shattered, broken sound torn from the depths of his hidden pain, and tilted into Runaan’s arms. “Today was the day you died.”

Runaan caught him against his chest and held him like his arms alone could protect Ethari from the memory. “Oh, Moonlight. Forgive me for causing you such pain.”

Ethari tucked his head against Runaan’s shoulder. He closed his eyes as Runaan rocked them both and trailed his fingers through Ethari’s shaggy hair. “Only you would apologize for being tortured and imprisoned,” Ethari said with a soft laugh.

“I made too many wrong decisions on that mission.” Runaan shrugged, regretting it as soon as Ethari’s eyes opened at the jostling. “I put you, and others, through needless suffering. I failed in my -”

“Stop, Runaan, just stop.” Ethari wrapped his arms around Runaan’s waist and squeezed. This was exactly what he’d feared would happen when Runaan heard the truth. Though he’d improved in many aspects since his return to the Silvergrove, his guilt from that failed mission and the lives it cost haunted him. Ethari suspected it would forever. The deaths of his squad weighed on his conscious, and his abject failure regarding Rayla was a topic even Ethari hesitated to broach. Too many tangled threads remained, and six months of freedom - half of which had been spent near bedridden - was not enough time to mend them all. “You returned to me, my heart. That is all that matters right now.”

“Of course. I made you a promise.” Runaan kissed the crown of Ethari’s head, but his gaze remained fixed on the ritual pool, a cold distance creeping into them.

Rough, calloused fingers caught his chin and forced his head back to warm honey eyes. Ethari tapped Runaan on the nose and smiled when his husband’s face scrunched. “I don’t know exactly what is going on in that head of yours, but I know you’ve gone somewhere I don’t like. Come back to me, today of all days.”

Runaan blinked, took a long slow breath through his nose, and smiled. He caught Ethari’s hand against his jaw and held it. “I’m here,” he said. “I’m with you.”

Ethari lifted his head for a kiss, and Runaan’s lips found his, a gentle caress before moving with a soft insistence. When they broke apart, Ethari smiled and cradled Runaan’s face between both hands. “Then we can deal with all the rest.”


End file.
